Letter to Meathaus: Daniel Zender

Daniel Zender sent Meathaus a package with two drawing zines and no note to type here or maybe I lost it. One of the books is called People I Think I Saw which is drawings by Daniel of different scratchy faces and doodles sometimes of dogs, skulls, babies, people with beards and such that Daniel has collected from his old sketchbooks and printed into this substantial feeling square little zine with neatly trimmed edges. The other book is 25 Minor Nightmares which was written by Ty Melgren and illustrated by Daniel. This book is interesting to read for almost anybody because these anxious dreams are built of the same uncomfortable broad brain-brush-strokes that each of us struggle through in dreamland while trying to make sense of waking life. For example, my favorite “minor nightmare”:

On my first day in a new town I wake up early to go to the grocery store. A line of people waiting to get in has formed by the door. When the doors are unlocked, the employees don’t bother to turn on the lights and people are running and pushing each other and grabbing things. When I find the juice section, the only kind of orange juice left is Sunny D.